The Chief Rabbis are warning the public to protect the environment and respect other people's property as Israelis light bonfires Thursday night to celebrate Lag B'Omer.
In a land where every tree is precious and every drop of water is rapidly becoming worth its weight in gold, preventing forest fires and other environmental damage is paramount.
Quoting the rabbinic text Kohelet Raba, a midrashic commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger cautioned in a statement to the public:
"When G-d created Adam He took him and showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden. G-d said to him, 'Look at all My creations, how magnificent they are. All that I have created is for you. Be sure not to destroy my world, because if you do there is no one who can repair it.' "
The statement by the two rabbis, aimed at the youth of Israel gathering wood to build huge bonfires for the festive day, appeared on the website of the American Society for the Preservation of Wildlife in Israel.
Lag B'Omer – 33rd Day of the Counting of the Omer
The term "Lag B'Omer" stands for "lamed-gimel" – the Hebrew letters with the numeric value that comprise 30 and 3, the number of days that have passed since the start of the counting of the Omer.
The Omer the measure of barley that was harvested in ancient times and brought to the Holy Temple as a grain sacrifice on the second day of Passover. The Torah commands Israel to count 49 days from the Omer sacrifice and then celebrate the holiday of Shavuot (Festival of Weeks), when the first fruits of the harvest are brought to Jerusalem. The Shavuot holiday marks the handing down of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Most of the days between Passover and Shavuot are comprised of a modified mourning period, held partly in memory of the 24,000 students of the ancient Talmudic scholar, Rabbi Akiva, who died of an epidemic during the period of the Bar Kochba uprising. Tradition holds that the epidemic was sent as Divine punishment for the students' disrespectful behavior toward one another and toward their fellow Jews.
One thousand years later, during the same period, Christian Crusaders killed tens of thousands of Jews. Five hundred years after that, an additional slaughter of Jews took place in eastern Europe, during the days of the Omer, referred to in Yiddish (the language spoken by eastern European Jews) as "Sefira", or "counting."
Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day, commemorates the day on which the epidemic ended. The mourning period is lifted on that day, and weddings and other celebrations may be held, with live music.
Bonfires, Barbecues and Birthday Bashes
The beaches, hills and valleys of Israel will be dotted with the traditional bonfires Thursday evening.
The custom is one that commemorates the fire that occurred when the Talmudic scholar Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai first gazed at a farmer tilling his field after emerging with his son from his 12-year self-imposed exile in a Galilee cave. The two had gone into hiding from the Romans who had been rounding up Jewish leaders and Torah teachers and torturing them to death.
(Rabbi Akiva had been caught and murdered in one of the roundups, his skin flayed from his body with iron combs and then burned alive at the stake before his horrified students' eyes.)
After 12 years of constant, isolated study of Torah and cabala, tradition holds that the farmer's field burned to a crisp when Rabbi Shimon first set eyes upon it.
During the day, barbecues – known as "mangal" (mahn-GAHL) in Hebrew – are de rigeur.
Also on Lag B'Omer, it is permissible to cut hair, and Chassidic boys who turn age three during the period of the Omer traditionally receive their first haircut in a special "upsherin" or "chalakeh" ceremony on this day. During the Omer it is forbidden to cut hair.
Traditional Celebrations to Light Up Meron
Hundreds of thousands of celebrants are flocking to the northern Galilee town of Meron, the site of the tomb of famed Talmudic scholar and kabbalist Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
The town, located near Tzfat in the Upper Galilee, is nestled at the foot of Mount Meron.
The traditional Lag B'Omer celebrations that also mark the anniversary of Rabbi Shimon's death continue round the clock at his grave site with singing, dancing, music, food, prayers and the traditional hair-cutting ceremonies for boys who reach the age of 3. Click here and here for past years' Arutz Sheva photo essays about Meron on Lag B'Omer.
Winds are expected to be almost still throughout the country, and temperatures will be pleasantly cool, dipping to 16 degrees Celsius (61 degrees Fahrenheit).